MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Mid-South magazine is giving individuals the outlet to express their creativity.
“Sunlight is pure diffused white light. So, we pass sunlight through a prism, then it pulls all the colors for at least all the colors just enough, just enough, where you can actually make out differences in the distinctions,” said Moth Moth Moth, Focus Magazine Programs Director.
The light reflected creates a rainbow of colors.
“It's all about inclusivity. It's all about sharing everything, right. And it's about the joys,” said Chellie Bowman, Focus Magazine Editor. “Things that are sad too... It just encompasses like, the whole spectrum of human emotion.”
That spectrum represents our LGBTQ+ community and the creativity blooming within it. Bowman and Moth Moth Moth run FOCUS, a free gay magazine in Memphis.
“What we're really trying to do is to represent the diversity of our community,” said Bowman.
They are adding a voice to a group that has long gone unheard.
“I wrote stories and books when I was a teenager and tried to get published and was turned away,” said Moth Moth Moth.
They created the Prism Pages, an outlet for up and coming LGBTQ writers and artists to publish anything from short stories to prose to poems.
“We've all seen the same kind of perspective, the same kind of stories, same kind of people highlight for many, many years. And now I'm sort of in a position where I get to change that if I want to, and I can just decide that there's new voices to be heard,” said Bowman.
There are communities who want to listen.
“LGBT people are not trend followers, we're trendsetters,” said Moth Moth Moth. “My very first published short story is in the prison pages. And to me that like, that has had a really profound meaningfulness to me... If we can recreate that feeling for as many other young writers or writers of all different types... then I think that's really the goal of the prism pages.”
They are letting the light of inclusivity shine through creativity.
If you would like to become a submit your work in Prism Pages, email editor@focuslgbt.com.